What Pottermore means for Warner, Bloomsbury and other stakeholders

Harry Potter author JK Rowling has announced an online
portal Pottermore that will
allow fans of the series to explore and discover Harry's world, as
well as buying e-book and audiobook editions of the seven-title
series.

But it's more than that. Harry Potter is a hell of a big
deal in the publishing industry, and Rowling's move could have as
wide-ranging implications as Radiohead's release of In
Rainbows did for the music industry in 2007.

So we asked what Pottermore means for all the relevant
stakeholders -- for Rowling, for her publisher, for Warner Bros
(which makes the movies and own the rights to any games involving
Potter) and Sony (which Rowling is partnering with for the
project), for the wider industry, and -- most of all -- for the
fans?

JK Rowling
As the creator of Harry Potter, Rowling has been very
careful over the years to not give away the rights to her creation
too easily. You won't find e-book editions of any of the Harry
Potter books in the Kindle store (though they're widely
available on filesharing networks), because Rowling has long held
onto the rights.

Rowling has closely overseen the creation of Pottermore, going as
far as to write significant amounts of extra content for the site.
She's also eschewed the graphical identity created in the Harry
Potter movies for an entirely separate look and feel. Both
moves suggest that she wants to assert her control over the
franchise, to prevent it from becoming one with the movies.

Most importantly, Pottermore gives Rowling control over the
franchise's fanbase. By building a site that the biggest fans of
the series will flock to, she gets demographic info, email
addresses, and all sorts of other data that's currently held by the
publisher. That will prove to be vital, especially when Rowling
decides to create more Potter-related content in the
future, because she'll have a direct channel to the fans to tell
them about it.

Harry Potter
Harry is getting a bit long in the tooth. If he was 11 when the
first book was released in 1997, that means that won't have his
Young Persons Railcard for very much longer. But Pottermore changes
that, slowing the passage of time by making his adventures
accessible to an entirely new audience.

As the star of Pottermore, which comes packed with content
accessible to a young demographic that might find books a bit too
old-hat, Harry's popularity can be passed down among a new
generation of fans, with the help of all their social networking
connections.

It's important not to forget, too, that with the book and film
franchises having ended in their current form, there's now a
Harry-shaped hole in the lives of Potter superfans. Pottermore
allows those fans to indulge their fever anew, without having to
wait for a new release every few years.

Bloomsbury/Scholastic
The launch of an e-book store that shuts out Bloomsbury and
Scholastic, Rowling's UK and US publishers respectively, might
initially seem like bad news for the publishers.

But in actuality, it's not that bad. Bloomsbury and Scholastic,
despite not owning the rights to the e-books, have been given a
share of e-book sales on Pottermore, and the site will also link
out to the publisher websites. Non-English versions of the e-books
will use the translations done by the publishers.

More importantly, though, any promotion of the Harry
Potter universe is likely to increase sales of the books
themselves. People are still likely to buy the original,
paper-bound stories, and when they do, Bloomsbury and Scholastic
profit.

Comments

JK is a smart woman and I think it's great to offer your fans more than what is currently out there.

Lisa Riebe

Jun 23rd 2011

I am about to publish my first novel. I know there is no comparison with JK Rowling's success, but I wonder where this leaves people like me. Should we by-pass publishers and go it alone. Any ideas would be welcome .